Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass is a figure of example relating to the Italian design. The Italians, unlike the designers in other European nations, were creating new functions towards the modernization of their country. They did not have any rules towards this reform; each worked freely and independent.

Sottsass, tried to achieve a broad international perspective during his days when he was still training, and he managed to by experiencing journeys in the East such as India and Nepal. The electronics industry, mass production, new materials and craftsmanship were Sottsass' tools which he used in order to be able to express new forms of cultural commitment. 

Sottsass lived through the culture and events of the 20^th century. At this time,  a celebration towards modern living took place. He was of those who took part in this aesthetic civilization, however he never shared its rigid views. His designs bring together the past, nostalgia, as well as fresh ideas of the present.

Memphis was founded in the winter in 1980-1981. It emerged from the energy, from Sottsass’ studio. It was  coordinated by Ettore and it collected designers, art dealers and craftsmen who were experts in the various manufacturing methods which distinguished Italian-made goods.

Moreover, the cultural roots of Sottsass’ architectural thought may be said to be traced back to 20^th century art-Cubism and Neo-Spatialism, as well as the Medieval Italian painting. This may be said since his work lacks a hierarchy between the scale of objects and the architecture. The greatest motivations behind Sottsass’ mind, are found in his underlying conception of the way space is inhabited. 

Sottsass lamps were made of aluminum sheets and these were folded in order to create movements and geometrical profiles from the flat surfaces. Instead of adopting the traditional treatment of volumes for lighting bodies, Sottsass made the most of the surface of the material, exploiting its dynamic quality and the possibilities it offered for endless variations through different cuts. These are only apparently simple lamps. The aim of the experimental research behind them was to establish an interaction between light and the shimmering of the aluminum sheets, between the colours of their settings and the reflecting surfaces, which mimetically take on different hues.

The meaning of this experiment lies in the designer’s will to provide qualitative solutions for the language of industrial civilization in the aftermath of the war.

    

Furthermore, ten years after Elea 9003, the portable typewriter Valentine was displayed in large numbers in the windows of the Rinascente. it is a portrayal to the 1970s generation. Innovative in its use in ABS plastic, even though with a simple appearance this typewriter clearly stands out among other industrial products of the time.  The new Olivetti products came with an extraordinary advertising campaign, planned and coordinated by Sottsass himself. This is also what contributed to making the Valentine a cult object. Sottsass probably had in mind a travel companion with the Valentine, a sort of an iPad of those days. The product was however, unfortunately stopped from production and from being a popular industrial object, it became an aristocratic collector’s item.

As a designer, Sottsass was never excited about serial production. He was rather uncomfortable with the idea of product, especially due to the word consumer, which was not conceivable to him. Still, when Sottsass designed objects to be reproduced in vast numbers, he did so with great skill and ethics. He designed objects that would last long, regardless of whether they were fragile items. endurance, and the idea of durability does not entail the use of resistant materials, but it rather implies profound ideas, capable of grasping the intimate nature of human rituals.

Van Impe House St. Lievens Houtem, Belgium 

Architecture, according to Sottsass, is a narrative rather than a composition. according to him, architecture only finds expression when one passes through it and experiences it, through the mutual relation between light, shadows and various materials. Sottsass’ architectures never have a main façade or predetermined order, or if they do, it is never a visual kind. His architectures revolve around man and his life. The volumes are stratified and arranged layer upon layer to cover people’s days and requirements. This is the case with the black house of the collector and art dealer Bischofberger. Such building reflects not just specific places, but the world: they are filled with the artificial lights and colours of big cities, as well as those of eastern temples and Indian dwellings. At the same time, they capture the sun of the Mediterranean terraces, while recreating the dark and mysterious Mediterranean rooms of Pompei. 

When discussing Sottsass’ works, Andrea Branzi speaks of ‘construction humanism’, recalling Giotto’s architectures. He said: 

‘In Giotto’s frescoes there is no difference between objects and architectures: the buildings are individual features of a human landscape, and are on very much the same footing as the characters of the story, which is the story of men ’.

Sottsass connection with the art dealer Ernest Mourmans,he experimented with the creation of genuine material landscapes, made out of light, shadows and sensory qualities. This series of pieces of furniture, glasses and ceramics is a reflection not only to Sottsass’ skill, but also to the work of Ernest. Sottsass' pieces of furniture spring from darkness, and they bring flashes and contrasts of light into space. The combination of different materials is a feature of Ettore Sottsass’s visual and cultural project, which aims to create furniture that escapes the rich categories of home living. For instance Snakewood is combined with cheaper plastic laminates, and acrylic plastic, as might be the case in those non-design areas of culture connected to metropolitan artificiality. The final effect is the very opposite of the one declared, since it reveals profound design and aesthetic ideas.

In the years of Italian design, especially in those between the 1950s and 1960s, it was obvious to everyone just what design was or what it should be. Sottsass’ writings, however, revealed that design is naturally rooted in the relation between men and things: the complex relation in which man’s inner landscape which is made of his culture, is put into solid matter. This change of things into matter may be called design, when the objects created become honest tools in the ritual of life.

Bibliography:

Minimum Design, 24 ORE Cultura. Ettore Sottsass